The present invention relates generally to an electronic performance support system and specifically to an electronic performance support system which aids a user in developing and evaluating ideas.
Most companies have a new product development process involving a systematic, disciplined approach to transform an idea into a product. The weak link in most of these processes involves selecting ideas for development. This selection often relies on intuition or visceral reactions. In fact, in the industry, the initial stage of the new product development process is often referred to as the xe2x80x9cFuzzy Front End.xe2x80x9d The Fuzzy Front End is traditionally viewed as the vague area where decisions regarding the market viability of a new product or service idea are made based upon visceral experience rather than disciplined analysis.
These existing new product development processes have further drawbacks. They often require, for example, costly cross-functional expert teams to sufficiently develop ideas into workable concepts. In addition, they often lack an efficient and consistent way to present information to high-level managers whose time may be limited. Finally, to the extent these processes lead to a conclusion regarding the possible success of an idea, the result is merely a go/no go decision. Such a result leaves high-level managers without a way to qualitatively assess the bases for that decision.
There is, therefore, a need for a system and method to systematically and efficiently develop new product and service ideas into robust concepts that may then be evaluated in an equally systematic and efficient manner.
Goals and advantages of the invention appear in the following description, and will be obvious from that description or by practicing the invention. The invention involves automatically qualifying, developing, rating, and assessing ideas in a structured format.
Specifically, a method according to this invention includes the steps of presenting a set of predefined questions regarding a proposal, obtaining a set of information about the proposal from responses to the questions, determining a score from the information in the set, determining, from the score, whether the set meets a predetermined minimum specification, and outputting the score and the obtained information for the purposes of evaluating the proposal.
A system according to this invention includes means for presenting a set of predefined questions regarding a proposal, means for obtaining a set of information from responses to the questions, means for determining a score from the information in the set, means for determining, from the score, whether the set meets a predetermined minimum specification, and means for outputting the score and the obtained information for the purposes of evaluating the proposal.
Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and do not restrict the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, explain the principles of the invention.